The people who work at Pixar are what Disney wants.
Exactly! And why would such talented people want to work for Disney with its track record of hopeless movies and ghastly commercial exploitation of the creative people they employ? I can't imagine that Jobs or anyone at Disney could make me believe that they've changed all of a sudden. I mean, Chicklen Little was only last year. Does that look like the product of someone who's even going to understand what Pixar is about, let alone leave alone them to get on with it? No chance, mate; Pixar is a dodo if this goes through. In five years time people will be asking how could it all have gone so wrong.
Putting themselves at risk like that just doesn't make sense unless there is a benefit.
What risk? So people know; so what? Is Bush in gaol now? Is anyone ever going to be punished? No. So, what's the risk you talk about?
A few of the little people found out how their ruling class operates. Big deal. Let them eat cake.
Regardless, I would rather have them listen to every phone call I make and feel safer than have to live worrying where the next bomb will go off at.
Here's my tip for you, then: go and commit some crimes and get thrown in gaol. Sure, they'll listen to and watch everything you do but you'll be safe. For extra security get thrown into solitary. Or do you think you might actually value freedom a bit more than that?
Disney already owns the rights to Pixar's back cataloug
That's true; I should have said that's all Disney would be left with - they'd have no new material, though, apart from the dreck they make themselves.
there is nothing stopping Disney from releasing Finding Nemo 3 or Toy Story 7 at the same time. That cuts into your bottom line quite a bit.
Would it? Those would probably go straight to DVD and be seen by no one over the age of 3. Look at Jungle Book 2: did it cut into sales of the original on DVD? I doubt it; it was just released and forgotten in the space of a couple of days.
The best creative minds working for Pixar can't just secede and start producing their own movies using OSS on a homebewed Linux cluster. A lot of the state of the art is secret and proprietary.
If you think Pixar's success is because of the technical side then you're not a movie fan. The writing and directing are the keys, not the hair animation, which IS mind-blowingly hard and well done but isn't the reason people go to see a movie (for example: Toy Story which had no hair since it couldn't be done then).
Pixar have the best track record for script and direction of any film studio its age in history at this point; someone would give those guys hardware and software that would be "good enough" (say all that stuff with "Dreamworks" printed on the side that was just sold off) and I'd go see their next movie because I'd know it would be funny and interesting, even if it was aimed mainly at children.
Disney needs Pixar, but Disney has nothing to offer the Pixar staff that they don't already have, or couldn't get somewhere else.
Disney have the Microsoft problem: their reputation will put off anyone who takes pride in their work, and no one could look at a Disney Shop with pride. Talent can always find patrons, especially when it has a history of making big bucks; why work for a quantity-not-quality outfit like Disney if you have the choice?
Disney can buy Pixar and have the rights to their back-catalogue to rape in the straight-to-video market alongside "Disney Buggers Winnie the Pooh Yet Again" and the rest of their tat but the last 15 years has shown that Disney can't recruit talent capable of making a good movie.
So, if Disney buys Pixar and Lassiter etc. walk out and start their own company Disney ends up with nothing more than a brand which they'll screw up as badly as they have their own.
I also don't tend to support slippery-slope arguments, because they're a fallacy.
My issue is with the nature of the requests from the Feds; they're not using the data to pursue a criminal, they're not using the data as evidence in a criminal case, they're not even using the data for purely statistical reasons. They're using the data to try to support their case for a stupid Act that has twice been struck down by appeals courts.
Care to reconcile those two paragraphs? In what way is the handing over of user data in those circumstances not the establishment of a very bad precedent and a very slippery slope?
Yea, but isn't Myth a PITA to get setup correctly? Much less getting linux drivers to work with some hardware.
On Gentoo Myth was no sweat, just a normal install. The hardware I'm using is a USB DVB tuner I bought for 50 quid. 2.4.13 Kernel already had support built in so it was plug-and-play! Myth has actually been the easiest hardware upgrade (apart from new harddrives) I've ever had on Linux.
I did have some problems with the programme guide, but only because I was greedy and wanted two weeks in advance instead of just one.
I'm sure he already knew how to code. He probably just learned the new syntax/language specific to the project. I took 2 years of coding, and there's no way I learned enough to be doing what he did.
Then you should ask for your money back; that's pathetic.
Your Product consists of one-paragraph stories, and you only post 50 in a day - they deserve to be properly written and spell-checked.
I agree but Taco has a "thing" about this and will never do anything about it; the idea that spelling and grammar are parts of clear communication (sort of the core of a news site, you would have thought) is one he seems to actively resist. Probably a bad experience at school or something.
The amount of real damage that a virus, worm, or trojan can do is not substantially affected by whether or not it can get administrator privledges.
My brother has an older iMac with five user accounts on it, so if one user gets a virus then only 20% of the user data is at immediate risk (no one in the house knows the admin password - that's my job as family IT guy).
So, in this case, not having admin privledges reduces the damage by 80%. Is that not "substantial"?
The alert is probably because most journalists seeing Intel-hardware prices this high would otherwise assume they've drunk themselves into a coma over "lunch" and woken in the 1980's.
Which would imply that the new Macs should be cheaper since they use Intel instead of AMD.
Sadly, Apple knows that they can produce any old crap, stick it in a nice case, and sell it to their standard market of style-droids with too much money.
Today's announcements are, for a non-Apple user, a joke. I had expected at least a slight attempt to make a machine normal users might want to buy. Instead we get a shit processor with a bog-standard system for a deluxe price.
i think that a user who gets a story posted to Slashdot should be allowed to link their vanity domain. Thats part of the fun!
In the case of BB it's not a vanity site nor fun, it's his business. He's a search-engine rigger and given that almost all/.ers hate such people, since they interfere with the usefullness of the Web, there is a huge wave of dislike at seeing him over and over again. I think Google may even have taken notice of him as his site's ranking (for the search "George Harrison") has taken a nose dive in the last week or so from #3 to out of the top 100.
When a government ignores its primary purpose, and starts to create laws to serve private interests, I would call it corrupt
I'm playing devil's advocate here but is it not the case that a capitalist would see the protection of a market as one of the primary purposes of the government? Eg, to prevent a rogue company from manipulating the market and thereby preventing the normal rules of competition from working, ultimately harming the private citizen by denying them the best product/service.
If the government is prone to corruption from corporations, then isn't the solution a new government?
In a capitalist society can you really call this corruption? Surely it's just an example of government making sure that business has a profitable environment to work in?
The real problem is that capitalism is as much an idealistic nonsense as communism. In reality people will always find a way to beat the system. In capitalism this means fixing the market in some way so that it's less free for the competition than for you, and that usually needs money so capitalism tends towards to monopoly powers dominating markets long after they have ceased to meet the real and changing needs of that market, while new companies struggle to get a foothold even with better products.
But since there's very little friction to reduce velocity in space, couldn't we just aim the little capsules towards Sol and shoot em off there?
No, the capsules are on Earth at the moment and when you fire them they have the orbital velocity of the Earth relative to the Sun as well as any you add relative to the Earth. To get them all the way in to the Sun you need to lose almost all of that Earth-based vector which is actually quite a large task since it adds up to something like a whopping 28Km per second!
Slashdot Mirror
Hey, it's a fair system: you have just as much right to buy laws as any big corporation.
TWW
There's a post-grad that doesn't know when to stop!
Exactly! And why would such talented people want to work for Disney with its track record of hopeless movies and ghastly commercial exploitation of the creative people they employ? I can't imagine that Jobs or anyone at Disney could make me believe that they've changed all of a sudden. I mean, Chicklen Little was only last year. Does that look like the product of someone who's even going to understand what Pixar is about, let alone leave alone them to get on with it? No chance, mate; Pixar is a dodo if this goes through. In five years time people will be asking how could it all have gone so wrong.
TWW
Yeah, because we all know that Steve's an expert animator, script writer and director.
Who the fuck cares what Steve Jobs does after this? The important question is what are the people who actually do the work at Pixar going to do.
TWW
What risk? So people know; so what? Is Bush in gaol now? Is anyone ever going to be punished? No. So, what's the risk you talk about?
A few of the little people found out how their ruling class operates. Big deal. Let them eat cake.
Regardless, I would rather have them listen to every phone call I make and feel safer than have to live worrying where the next bomb will go off at.
Here's my tip for you, then: go and commit some crimes and get thrown in gaol. Sure, they'll listen to and watch everything you do but you'll be safe. For extra security get thrown into solitary. Or do you think you might actually value freedom a bit more than that?
TWW
That's true; I should have said that's all Disney would be left with - they'd have no new material, though, apart from the dreck they make themselves.
there is nothing stopping Disney from releasing Finding Nemo 3 or Toy Story 7 at the same time. That cuts into your bottom line quite a bit.
Would it? Those would probably go straight to DVD and be seen by no one over the age of 3. Look at Jungle Book 2: did it cut into sales of the original on DVD? I doubt it; it was just released and forgotten in the space of a couple of days.
TWW
And why would they be willing? Why move from Aston Martin to Fiat?
TWW
If you think Pixar's success is because of the technical side then you're not a movie fan. The writing and directing are the keys, not the hair animation, which IS mind-blowingly hard and well done but isn't the reason people go to see a movie (for example: Toy Story which had no hair since it couldn't be done then).
Pixar have the best track record for script and direction of any film studio its age in history at this point; someone would give those guys hardware and software that would be "good enough" (say all that stuff with "Dreamworks" printed on the side that was just sold off) and I'd go see their next movie because I'd know it would be funny and interesting, even if it was aimed mainly at children.
Disney needs Pixar, but Disney has nothing to offer the Pixar staff that they don't already have, or couldn't get somewhere else.
Disney have the Microsoft problem: their reputation will put off anyone who takes pride in their work, and no one could look at a Disney Shop with pride. Talent can always find patrons, especially when it has a history of making big bucks; why work for a quantity-not-quality outfit like Disney if you have the choice?
TWW
Who needs "may"? We have a golden age of Pixar animation today. Disney can drop dead and I (and the ghost of Ub Iwerks) won't shed any tears.
TWW
Jobs needs his head examined for going with a has-been company like Intel.
TWW
So, if Disney buys Pixar and Lassiter etc. walk out and start their own company Disney ends up with nothing more than a brand which they'll screw up as badly as they have their own.
TWW
My issue is with the nature of the requests from the Feds; they're not using the data to pursue a criminal, they're not using the data as evidence in a criminal case, they're not even using the data for purely statistical reasons. They're using the data to try to support their case for a stupid Act that has twice been struck down by appeals courts.
Care to reconcile those two paragraphs? In what way is the handing over of user data in those circumstances not the establishment of a very bad precedent and a very slippery slope?
TWW
What do you mean "if"?
TWW
On Gentoo Myth was no sweat, just a normal install. The hardware I'm using is a USB DVB tuner I bought for 50 quid. 2.4.13 Kernel already had support built in so it was plug-and-play! Myth has actually been the easiest hardware upgrade (apart from new harddrives) I've ever had on Linux.
I did have some problems with the programme guide, but only because I was greedy and wanted two weeks in advance instead of just one.
TWW
Then you should ask for your money back; that's pathetic.
TWW
You are wise in the ways of copper.
I agree but Taco has a "thing" about this and will never do anything about it; the idea that spelling and grammar are parts of clear communication (sort of the core of a news site, you would have thought) is one he seems to actively resist. Probably a bad experience at school or something.
TWW
Well, I can't believe people are still putting Intel chips into their machines, so there you go!
TWW
My brother has an older iMac with five user accounts on it, so if one user gets a virus then only 20% of the user data is at immediate risk (no one in the house knows the admin password - that's my job as family IT guy).
So, in this case, not having admin privledges reduces the damage by 80%. Is that not "substantial"?
TWW
TWW
Which would imply that the new Macs should be cheaper since they use Intel instead of AMD.
Sadly, Apple knows that they can produce any old crap, stick it in a nice case, and sell it to their standard market of style-droids with too much money.
Today's announcements are, for a non-Apple user, a joke. I had expected at least a slight attempt to make a machine normal users might want to buy. Instead we get a shit processor with a bog-standard system for a deluxe price.
TWW
In the case of BB it's not a vanity site nor fun, it's his business. He's a search-engine rigger and given that almost all /.ers hate such people, since they interfere with the usefullness of the Web, there is a huge wave of dislike at seeing him over and over again. I think Google may even have taken notice of him as his site's ranking (for the search "George Harrison") has taken a nose dive in the last week or so from #3 to out of the top 100.
Vanity sites ARE fine and fun. Parasites aren't.
TWW
I'm playing devil's advocate here but is it not the case that a capitalist would see the protection of a market as one of the primary purposes of the government? Eg, to prevent a rogue company from manipulating the market and thereby preventing the normal rules of competition from working, ultimately harming the private citizen by denying them the best product/service.
TWW
In a capitalist society can you really call this corruption? Surely it's just an example of government making sure that business has a profitable environment to work in?
The real problem is that capitalism is as much an idealistic nonsense as communism. In reality people will always find a way to beat the system. In capitalism this means fixing the market in some way so that it's less free for the competition than for you, and that usually needs money so capitalism tends towards to monopoly powers dominating markets long after they have ceased to meet the real and changing needs of that market, while new companies struggle to get a foothold even with better products.
TWW
No, the capsules are on Earth at the moment and when you fire them they have the orbital velocity of the Earth relative to the Sun as well as any you add relative to the Earth. To get them all the way in to the Sun you need to lose almost all of that Earth-based vector which is actually quite a large task since it adds up to something like a whopping 28Km per second!
TWW